Purpose: To encourage the workforce investment system to make entrepreneurial training
opportunities available for people interested in self-employment under Title I of the
Workforce Investment Act of 1998.

Contract: http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/corr_doc.cfm?DOCN=1684

Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 17-04

Subject: Native American Employment And Training Council Nominations

Purpose: To request Workforce Investment Act (WIA) section 166 grantees to submit nominations
for consideration by the Secretary of Labor for appointment to fill expiring terms of
membership on the Native American Employment and Training Council (Council).

Contract: http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/corr_doc.cfm?DOCN=1685

Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 18-04

Subject: To Announce the soon-to-be-published Proposed Revision to Existing Performance
Reporting Requirements for the Implementation of Common Measures for Title I of the
WIA, the Wagner-Peyser (Employment Service (ES)/Labor Exchange), the Trade
Adjustment Assistance Reform Act (TAA), and Title 38, Chapter 41 Job Counseling,
Training, and Placement Service (Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS).

Contract: http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/corr_doc.cfm?DOCN=1686

Training and Employment Notice No. 17-04

Subject: National Mystery Shopping Project

Purpose: To inform the workforce investment system of a national Mystery Shopping project.

Contact: http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/corr_doc.cfm?DOCN=1682

Miscellaneous

Occasional Papers

The Employment and Training Administration's Library Web page contains the agency's Occasional Papers.
The latest additions to this catalogue are (1) The Effects of Customer Choice: First Findings from the
Individual Training Account Experiment and (2) The Evaluation of the Individual Training Account /
Eligible Training Provider Demonstration.

Contact: http://www.doleta.gov/reports/searcheta/occ/

Trust Fund Loans

Outstanding Loans from the Federal Unemployment Account. New York, Missouri, North
Carolina, Minnesota, and Illinois have outstanding loans from the Federal Unemployment
Account. Their balances as of February 24, 2005, are:

New York

$842,529,906

Missouri

$318,108,175

North Carolina

$123,772,079

Minnesota

$177,182,158

Illinois

$142,375,928

Loan Request from North Carolina. North Carolina requested authorization to borrow $100
million in March, $80 million in April, and $100 million in May 2005, from the Federal
Unemployment Account.

SSA Data Exchange. Alabama and Montana are the first states to complete the necessary
requirements to begin real time data exchanges with the Social Security Administration (SSA) via
the UI Interstate Connection (ICON) telecommunications network. Twelve other states have
completed agreements with SSA to conduct the data exchange and are testing and/or addressing
the security requirements for the SSA system.

Once operational, states will use the SSA data exchange during the UI claims process to receive a
"real time" verification of UI claimants' social security number, name, birth date, and receipt of
pension data, if applicable. In return, SSA will have access to the states' data to verify claim and
wage information for SSI claimants.